Scheidt School of Music Graduate Wins Composition Award

For release, September 22, 2009
For press information, contact Carol Morse (901) 678-2279

Yigit Kolat has been named the 2009 Tennessee Music Teachers Association (TMTA) Composer of the Year. A native of Ankara, Turkey, he received his MM degree from the University of Memphis Rudi E. Scheidt School of Music  where he studied composition with Kamran Ince and John Baur and piano with Samuel Viviano.

Kolat has received a commission to compose a work which will be premiered at the next TMTA conference in June 2010. This composition will be entered in the Music Teachers National Association Composer of the Year Competition.

Kolat received his BA and MA from Hacettepe University State Conservatory in Turkey. His music has received several awards, including the first prize in the Nejat F. Eczacibasi Composition Contest, the most prestigious composition award of his native country. His works have been performed by various groups and artists including the Argento New Music Project of Columbia University, Peter Sheppard-Skaerved and Aaron Shorr of the Royal Academy of Music, the Athelas Ensemble of Denmark and the Presidential Symphony Orchestra of Turkey. Kolat is currently pursuing a DMA in music composition at the University of Washington.